Elliot Ptasnik Joins Queens Swimming Staff As Assistant Coach

Courtesy: Queens Athletics

CHARLOTTE, N.C.- Queens University of Charlotte Associate Athletic Director and Director of Swimming Jeff Dugdale has added Elliot Ptasnik to his men’s and women’s swimming coaching staffs for the 2023-24 season. Ptasnik brings over 15 years of coaching to Charlotte with experience ranging from age group, college, and professional swimmers. Most recently, he served as a volunteer assistant coach at Stanford University, primarily working with the Cardinal women’s team and 2020 U.S. Women’s Olympic Swimming Head Coach Greg Meehan.

“Elliot made an immediate and lasting impact on our program this summer,” Meehan said. “He’s an incredibly thoughtful and curious coach who brought positive and infectious energy to the pool deck each and every day. Elliot will continue to make a big impact at Queens and I’m excited for him to take his next journey in his career.”

While completing a master’s degree from 2021 to 2023, Ptasnik was the founder and head coach of Aloha Aquatica, a professional training group based out of Kapolei, Hawaii. He coached athletes such as 2022 World Champion Ben Proud, world record holder Andrii Govorov, 2016 Olympic gold medalist Anthony Ervin, ISL star Linnea Mack, Commonwealth Games medalist Jamie Ingram, and several other professional swimmers. In the summer of 2022, Ptasnik coached Ukraine at the World Championships and European Championships, assisting Ukraine’s high-performance swimmers during the Russia and Ukraine conflict.

“I am very excited to work with the fast-rising Queens Royal student-athletes, and such a wonderful staff,” Ptasnik stated. “We will place swimmers on their respective Olympic rosters, be a top Division I program, and contribute in many ways to the Charlotte community.”

From 2016 to 2021, Ptasnik served as an assistant coach and head coach at the University of Hawaii at Manoa. During his tenure at Hawaii, he helped guide the UH Wahine (women’s team) to MPSF Conference Championships in 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the UH Warriors (men’s team) to MPSF Conference Championships in 2019 and 2020. Ptasnik was awarded MPSF Women’s Coach of the Year in 2020 and 2021 and MPSF Men’s Coach of the Year in 2020.

Prior to Hawaii, Ptasnik spent nine years as Director of Imagine Swimming in New York City, expanding the swim school to over 4,000 swimmers and serving as head coach of the Manhattan Makos swim team which produced many successful swimming careers, including Division I and Division III national champions.

Ptasnik swam at the University of Iowa, earning a degree in finance in 2005. He also has an MBA from the University of Hawaii. The new assistant coach will be joined in Charlotte by his fiancé Shana, who will be an electrophysiologist at Novant Presbyterian Hospital.

“Elliot is an excellent fit with our program,” Dugdale commented. “He has robust knowledge, a growth mindset, and a hunger to move athletes from good to great. We exist to build leaders for life and Elliot brings another layer of expertise and experience to deliver an amazing experience to our student-athletes. I also want to welcome Shana to the Queen City.”